The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Kobbé, Gustav

KOBBÉ, kŏb'bā, Gustav, American author and journalist: b. New York, 4 March 1857; d. 1918. He was graduated at Columbia University in 1877, and from its Law School in 1879, and received the degree of M.A. from this institution in 1880; was on the staff of the New York Sun in 1881, and correspondent of the New York World at the first performance of ‘Parsifal’ at Bayreuth in 1882. As a journalist he has always specialized in music, drama and art, and since 1905 has been art critic of the New York Herald. His Wagner books (1889-90), after going through many editions, were combined in ‘Wagner's Music-Dramas Analyzed’ (1904). Besides these and many magazine articles in the Century, the North American Review, the Forum, the Ladies' Home Journal, the Delineator, etc., he has published ‘My Rosary and Other Poems’ (1896); ‘Plays for Amateurs’ (1892); ‘Miriam,’ a story (1898); ‘Opera Singers’ (1901); ‘Signora, a Child of the Opera House,’ a novel (1902); ‘Famous Actors and Actresses and Their Homes’ (1903); ‘Loves of the Great Composers’ (1905); ‘Wagner and His Isolde’ (1905); ‘Famous American Songs’ (1906); ‘How to Appreciate Music’ (1906); ‘The Pianolist’ (1907); ‘A Tribute to the Dog’ (1911); ‘Portrait Gallery of Great Composers’ (1911); ‘Modern Women’ (1916). He was editor of the Lotus Magazine from 1909 to 1918.